Internals:
There are going to be mini-games in The Agency as well and we were shown Q-Bert is actually in the game and there will allegedly be a computer hacker you have to talk to but he only respects those who have a Q-Bert score of 10,000 or higher so you’ll need to go play Q-Bert to get him to talk to you. Interesting, cool, totally fits into the world they’re building from what I saw. Other games might be more spy-like like Baccarat or high stakes Poker, or something similar.
Most of the skills in the world are contextual within the world and you won’t be staring at loads of skill bars while playing. With the action game base of the game you won’t need hundreds of skills but you can do a wide variety of actions based on what you have on you, the environment and such.
The developers are also looking to keep some tongue-in-cheek humor in the game and in the UNITE HQ that is the gadgets development lab where several things are going on that are interesting and funny to watch.
Oh and I almost forgot. They say that as of now PC and PS3 players will be able to play together. That’s pretty damned cool.
I have since found out from Kevin O’Hara that there are no plans for the PC/PS3 cross-platform play, but that could change is what I’m told. Thanks for that correction as well.
Missions:
When you’re teaming up with other players the clothes you wear will help decide your class and so if you need a medic someone throws on a medic suit etc. This will help you balance your team to accomplish your missions. Many of the public areas will allow for 1-4 players to play certain missions and do certain things.
Other missions are going to be geared more towards 4 players than one. However you will be able to attain the highest rank in the game simply by playing solo and never playing with anyone else. All missions have ratings of bronze, silver, and gold. If you want all gold awards you’ll probably need friends in the game to help you out.
You don’t have to go back and play a mission for a gold but you can if you want. Plus there will be a lobby system and a PvP area so you can go head-to-head with your friends or enemies. The PvP area instances will be separate and will run more like standard FPS games with specific maps and such.